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Accountants to get money landering exemptions

The Home Office has launched a consultation into whether accountants in practice should benefit from the same exemptions currently available to lawyers on reporting money-laundering suspicions to the National Criminal Intelligence Service.

If the proposals are put into law it would extend the reporting exemptions already available to lawyers encountering information in privileged circumstances – where there is no issue of furtherance of criminal purpose – to ‘other relevant professional advisers,’ including accountants and tax advisers.

‘We are delighted that the Home Office has taken this step, and hope that it results in a rapid change in the law,’ said Karen Silcock, chairman of the ICAEW?s money laundering working party. ‘The changes now under discussion have the potential to remove inequalitites, to the benefit of both clients and advisers, without harming the flow of valuable anti-money laundering intelligence to the authorities.’